THIS BOOK is more of the hard life of Rampa before the body - change -
over, or the WALK - IN - PROCESS. Much of this period is also covered in
his book THE RAMPA STORY, and The Saffron Robe.

HERE extract from chapters from this WISDOMSBOOK from Rampa. Some
headlines added.

PUBLISHERS' NOTE from the 6th edition from 1966:

When Lobsang Rampa's first book The Third Eye was published, a very
heated controversy arose which is still continuing. The contention
(påstand) of the author that a Tibetan lama was writing of his life
"through" him, and had in fact fully occupied his body following
a slight conclusive accident, was not one to which many readers in the
West were likely to give credence. Some, remembering similar cases in the
past, although not from Tibet, preferred to keep an open mind. Others, and
it is likely that they formed the majority, were openly sceptical. Many of
them, however, whether they were specialists on the Far East or ordinary
readers who enjoy an unusual book, were confounded by the author's obvious
mastery of his subject, opening wide a door on a fascinating and little
known part of the world, and by the absence of any record of previous
literary ability. Certainly no one was able to disprove his facts.

The present Publishers believe that whatever the truth of the matter
should be (if it is ever ascertainable), it is right that The Third Eye
and now Doctor from Lhasa should be a available to the public, if only
because they are highly enjoyable on their own merit. On the larger,
fundamental issues which they raise, every reader must come to a personal
decision. Doctor from Lhasa is as Lobsang Rampa wrote it. It must speak
for itself.

Author's Foreword from the 6th edition from 1966:

WHEN I was in England I wrote The Third Eye, a book which is true, but
which has caused much comment. Letters came in from all over the world,
and in answer to requests I wrote this book, Doctor from Lhasa.

My experiences, as will be told in a third book, have been far beyond
that which most people have to endure, experiences which are paralleled
only in a few cases in history. That though, is not the object of this
book which deals with a continuation of my autobiography.

I am a Tibetan lama who came to the western world in pursuance of his
destiny, came as was foretold, and endured all the hardships as foretold.
Unfortunately, western people looked upon me as a curio, as a specimen who
should be put in a cage and shown off as a freak from the unknown. It made
me wonder what would happen to my old friends, the Yetis, if the
westerners got hold of them as they are trying to do.

Undoubtedly the Yeti would be shot, stuffed, and put in some museum.
Even then people would argue and say that there were no such things as
Yetis! To me it is strange beyond belief that western people can believe
in television, and in space rockets that may circle the Moon and return
and yet not credit Yetis or "Unknown Flying Objects," or, in
fact, anything which they cannot hold in their hands and pull to pieces to
see what makes it work.

But now I have the formidable task of putting into just a few pages
that which before took a whole book, the details of my early childhood.

I came of a very high - ranking family, one of the leading families in
Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. My parents had much to say in the control of
the country, and because I was of high rank I was given severe training so
that, it was considered, I should be fit to take my place. Then, before I
was seven years of age, in accordance with our established custom, the
Astrologer Priests of Tibet were consulted to see what type of career
would be open to me. For days before this preparations went forward,
preparations for an immense party at which all the leading citizens, all
the notabilities of Lhasa would come to hear my fate. Eventually the Day
of Prophecy arrived. Our estate was thronged with people. The Astrologers
came armed with their sheets of paper, with their charts, and with all the
essentials of their profession. Then, at the appropriate time, when
everyone had been built up to a high pitch of excitement, the Chief
Astrologer pronounced his findings. It was solemnly proclaimed that I
should enter a lamasery at the age of seven, and be trained as a priest,
and as a priest surgeon. Many predictions were made about my life, in fact
the whole of my life was outlined. To my great sorrow everything they said
has come true. I say "sorrow" because most of it has been
misfortune, and hardship, and suffering, and it does not make it any
easier when one knows all that one is to suffer.

I entered the Chakpori lamasery when I was seven years of age, making
my lonely way along the path. At the entrance I was kept, and had to
undergo an ordeal to see if I was hard enough, tough enough to undergo the
training. This I passed, and then I was allowed to enter. I went through
all the stages from an absolutely raw beginner, and in the end I became a
lame and an abbot. Medicine and surgery were my strong points. I studied
these with avidity, and I was given every facility to study dead bodies. It is a belief in the west that
the lamas of Tibet never do anything to bodies if it means making an
opening The belief is, apparently, that Tibetan medical science is
rudimentary, because the medical lamas treat only the exterior and not the
interior. That is not correct. The ordinary lama, I agree, never opens a
body; it is against his own form of belief. But there was a special
nucleus of lamas, of whom I was one, who were trained to do operations,
and to do operations which were possibly even beyond the scope of western
science.

In passing there is also a belief in the west that Tibetan medicine
teaches that the man has his heart on one side, and the woman has her
heart on the other side. Nothing could be more ridiculous. Information
such as this has been passed on to the western people by those who have no
real knowledge of what they are writing about, because some of the charts
to which they refer deal with astral bodies instead, a very different
matter. However, that has nothing to do with this book.

My training was very intensive indeed, because I had to know not only
my specialised subjects of medicine and surgery, but all the Scriptures as
well because, as well as being a medical lama, I also had to pass as a
religious one, as a fully trained priest. So it was necessary to study for
two branches at once, and that meant studying twice as hard as the
average. I did not look upon that with any great favour!

But it was not all hardship, of course. I took many trips to the higher
parts of Tibet - Lhasa is 12,000 feet above sea level - gathering herbs,
because we based our medical training upon herbal treatment, and at
Chakpori we always had at least 6,000 different types of herb in stock. We
Tibetans believe that we know more about herbal treatment than people in
any other part of the world do. Now that I have been around the world
several times that belief is strengthened.

On several of my trips to the higher parts of Tibet I flew in man
lifting kites, soaring above the jagged peaks of the high mountain ranges,
and looking for miles, and miles, over the countryside. I also took part
in a memorable expedition to the almost inaccessible part of Tibet - to
the highest part of the Chang Tang Highlands. Here, we of the expedition
found a deeply secluded valley between clefts in the rock, and warmed,
warmed by the eternal fires of the earth, which caused hot waters to
bubble out and flow into the river. We found, too, a mighty city, half of
it exposed in the hot air of the hidden valley, and the other half buried
in the clear ice of a glacier. Ice so clear that the other part of the
city was visible as if through the very clearest water. That part of the
city which has been thawed out was almost intact. The years had dealt
gently indeed with the buildings. The still air, the absence of wind, had
saved the buildings from damage by attrition. We walked along the streets,
the first people to tread those streets for thousands and thousands of
years. We wandered at will through houses which looked as if they were
awaiting their owners, until we looked a little more closely and saw
strange skeletons, petrified skeletons, and then we realised that here was
a dead city. There were many fantastic devices, which indicated that this
hidden valley had once been the home of a civilisation far greater than
any now upon the face of the earth. It proved conclusively to us that we
were now as savages compared to the people of that bygone age. But in
this, the second book, I write more of that city.

When I was quite young I had a special operation which was called the
opening of the third eye. In it a sliver of hard wood, which had been
soaked in special herbal solutions, was inserted in the centre of my
forehead in order to stimulate a gland which gave me increased powers of
clairvoyance. I was born markedly clairvoyant, but then, after the
operation, I was really abnormally so, and I could see people with their
aura around them as if they were wreathed in flames of fluctuating
colours. From their auras I could divine their thoughts; what ailed them,
what their hopes and fears were. Now that I have left Tibet - I am trying
to interest western doctors in a device which would enable any doctor and
surgeon to see if the human aura as it really is, in colour. I know that
if doctors and surgeons can see the aura, they can see what really affects
a person. So that by looking at the colours, and by the outline of the
moving bands, the specialist can tell exactly what illnesses a person is
suffering from. Moreover, this can be told before there is any visible
sign in the physical body itself, because the aura shows evidence of
cancer, TB, and other complaints, many months before it attacks the
physical body. Thus, by having such early warning of the onset of disease
the doctor can treat the complaint, and cure it infallibly. To my horror,
and very deep sorrow, western doctors are not at all interested. They
appear to think it is something to do with magic, instead of being just
ordinary common sense, as it is. Any engineer will know that high-tension
wires have a corona around them. So has the human body, and it is just an
ordinary physical thing which I want to show to the specialists, and they
reject it. That is a tragedy. But it will come in time. The tragedy is
that so many people must suffer and die needlessly, until it does come.

The Dalai Lama, the thirteenth Dalai Lama, was my patron. He ordered
that I should receive every possible assistance in training, and in
experience. He directed that I should be taught everything that could be
crammed into me, and as well as being taught by the ordinary oral system I
was also instructed by hypnosis, and by various other forms which there is
no need to mention here. Some of them are dealt with in this book, or in
The Third Eye. Others are so novel, and so incredible that the time is not
ripe for them to be discussed.

Because of my powers of clairvoyance I was able to be of a great
assistance to the Inmost One on various occasions. I was hidden in his
audience room so that I could interpret a person's real thoughts and
intentions from the aura. This was done to see if the person's speech and
thoughts tallied particularly when they were foreign statesmen visiting
the Dalai Lama. I was an unseen observer when a Chinese delegation was
received by the Great Thirteenth. I was an unseen observer, too, when an
Englishman went to see the Dalal Lama, but on the latter occasion I nearly
fell down in my duty because of my astonishment at the remarkable dress
which the man wore, my first, very first sight of European dress!

The training was long and arduous. There were temple services to be
attended throughout the night as well as throughout the day. Not for us
the softness of beds. We rolled ourselves in our solitary blanket, and
went to sleep on the floor. The teachers were strict indeed, and we had to
study, and learn, and commit everything to memory. We did not keep any
books, we committed everything to memory. I learned metaphysical subjects
as well. I went deeply into it, clairvoyance, astral travelling telepathy,
I went through the whole lot. In one of my stages of initiation I visited
the secret caverns and tunnels beneath the Potala. caverns and tunnels of
which the average man knows nothing. They are the relics of an age - old
civilisation which is almost beyond memory, beyond racial memory almost,
and on the walls were the records, pictorial records of things that flow
in the air, and things that went beneath the earth. In another stage on
initiation I saw the carefully preserved bodies of giants, ten feet, and
fifteen feet long. I too was sent to the other side of death, to know that
there is no death, and when I returned - I was a Recognised Incarnation,
with a rank of an abbot. But l did not want to be an abbot, tied to a
lamasery. I wanted to be a lama, free to move about, free to help others,
as the Prediction said I would. So, I was confirmed in the rank of lama by
the Dalai Lama himself, and by Him I was attached to the Potala in Lhasa.
Even then my training continued, I was taught various forms of western
science, optics, and other allied subjects. But, at last the time came
when I was called once again to the Dalai Lama, and given instructions.

He told me that I had learned all that I could learn in Tibet, that the
time had come for me to move on, to leave all that I loved, all that I
cared for. He told me that special messengers had been sent out to
Chungkig to enrol me as a student of medicine and surgery in that Chinese
city.

I was sick at heart when I left the presence of the Inmost one, and
made my way to my Guide, the lama Mingyar Dondup, and told him what had
been decided. Then I went to the home of my parents to tell them also what
had happened, that I was to leave Lhasa. The days flew by, and the final
day came when I left Chakpori, when for the last time I saw Mingyar Dondup
in the flesh, and I made my way out of the city of Lhasa, the Holy City,
on to the high mountain passes. And as I looked back the last thing I saw
was a symbol. For from the golden roofs of the Potala a solitary kite was
flying.

THE HUMAN AURA AND ELECTRICITY

(here from a conversation Rampa had to the lecturer of the university
in China he was at - and the conversation is on the theme - the aura. From
page 62 - chapter 3 - "medical days":)

"….I say that all your training goes to prove the existence of
an aura, because from the very little that I have already studied of
Electricity in this college, it indicates to me that the human being is
powered by electricity." "What utter nonsense!" he (the
lecturer) said. "What absolute heresy." And he jumped to his
feet. "Come with me to the Principal. We will get this thing
settled!"

Dr. Lee was sitting at his desk, busily engaged with the papers of the
college. He looked up mildly as we entered, peering over the top of his
glasses. Then he removed them to see us the more clearly. "Reverend
Principal," bawled the lecturer, "this man, this fellow from
Tibet says that ho can see the aura and that we all have auras. He is
trying to tell me that he knows more than I do, the Professor of
Electricity and Magnetism." Dr. Lee mildly' motioned for us to be
seated, and then said, "Well, what is it precisely? Lobsang Rampa can
see auras. That I know. Of what do you complain?" The lecturer
absolutely gaped in astonishment. "But, Reverend Principal," he
exclaimed, "do YOU believe in such nonsense, such heresy, such
trickery?" "Most assuredly I do," said Dr. Lee, "for
he comes of the highest in Tibet, and I have heard of him from the
highest."' Po Chu looked really crestfallen. Dr. Lee turned to me and
said, "Lobsang Rampa, I will ask you to tell us in your' own, words
about this aura. Tell us as if we knew nothing what - ever about the
subject. Tell us so that we may understand and perhaps profit from your
specialised experience."

Well, that was quite a different matter. I liked Dr. Lee, I liked the
way he handled things. "Dr. Lee," I said, "when I was born
it was with the ability to see people as they really were. They have
around them an aura which betrays every fluctuation of thought, every
variation in health, in mental or in spiritual conditions. This aura is
the light caused by the spirit within. For the first 'couple of years of
my life I thought everyone saw as I did, but I soon learned that that was
not so. Then, as you are aware, I entered a lamasery at the age of seven
and underwent special training. In that lamasery I was given a special
operation to make me see with even greater clarity than that which I had
seen before, but which also gave me additional powers.

In the days before history was," I went on, "man had a Third
Eye. Through his own folly man lost the power to use that sight and that
was the purpose of my training at the lamasery in Lhasa." I looked at
them and saw that they were taking it in very well. "Dr. Lee," I
went on, "the human body is surrounded first of all by a bluish
light, a light perhaps an inch, perhaps two inches thick. That follows and
covers the whole of the physical body. It is what we call the etheric body
and is the lowest of the bodies. It is the connection between the astral
world and the physical. The intensity of the blue varies according to a
person's health. Then beyond the body, beyond the etheric body too, there
is the aura. It varies in size enormously depending on the state of
evolution of the person concerned, depending also upon the standard of
education of the person, and upon his thoughts. Your own aura is the
length of a man away from you, 'I sald to the Principal, "the aura of
an evolved man. The human aura whatever its size, is composed of swirling
bands of colours, like clouds of colours drifting on the evening sky. They
alter with a person's thoughts. There are zones on the body, special
zones, which produce their own horizontal bands of colour.

Yesterday," I said, "when I was working in the library I saw
some pictures in a book on some Western religious belief. Here there were
portrayed figures, which had auras around their heads. Does this mean that
the people of the West whom I had thought inferior to us in development
can see auras, while we of the East cannot? These pictures of the people
of the West," I carried on, had auras only around their heads. But I
can see not merely around the head, but around the whole body and round
the hands, the fingers and the feet. It is a thing I have always
seen." The Principal turned to Po Chu ere, you see, this is the
information which I had before.

I knew that Rampa had this power. He used this power on behalf of the
leaders of Tibet That is why he is studying with us so that, it is hoped,
he can assist in the developing of a special device which will be of the
greatest benefit to mankind as a whole in connection with the detection
and cure of disease. What caused you to come here today?" he asked.

The lecturer was looking very thoughtful. He replied, "We were
just commencing practical Magnetism, and before I could show anything, as
soon as I spoke about fields, this man said that he could see the fields
around the magnet which I knew to be utterly fantastic. So I invited him
to demonstrate upon the blackboard. To my astonishment," he went on,
"he was able to draw the field on the blackboard, and he was able
also to draw the current field of a high frequency transformer, but when
it was switched off he saw nothing. I am sure it was a trick." He
looked defiantly at the Principal. "No," said Dr. Lee,
"indeed it was no trick. It was no trick at all. For this is known to
me as the truth. Some years ago I met his Guide, the Lama Mingyar Dondup,
one of the cleverest men in Tibet, and he, out of the goodness of his
heart, underwent certain tests, out of friendship for me, and he proved
that he could do the' same as can Lobsang Rampa. We were able - that is a
special group of us - to make some serious researches into the matter.
But, unfortunately, prejudice, conservatism, and jealousy prevented us
from publishing our findings. It is a thing which I have regretted ever
since."

There was silence for a time. I thought how good it was of the
Principal to declare his faith in me. The lecturer was looking really
gloomy as if he had received an unexpected, unwelcome setback. He said,
"If you have this power, why are you studying medicine?" I
replied, "1 want to study medicine and I want to study science well
so that I may assist in the preparation of a device similar to that which
I saw in the Chang Tang Highland of Tibet." The Principal broke in,
"Yes, I know that you were one of the men who went on that
expedition. I should like to know more about that device."

"Some time Ago," I said, "at the instigation of the
Dalai Lama a small party of us went upwards into a hidden valley in the
mountain ranges in the Chang Tang Highlands. Here we found a city dating
back to long before recorded history, a city of a bygone race, a city
partly buried in the ice of a glacier, but where the glacier had melted in
the hidden valley, where it was warm, the buildings and the devices
contained in the buildings were intact. One such apparatus was a form of
box into which one could look and see the human aura, and from that aura,
from the colours, from the general appearance, they could deduce the state
of health of a person. More, they could see if a person was likely to be
afflicted in the flesh by any disease because the probabilities showed in
the same aura before it was manifest in the flesh. In the same way, the
germs of coryza show in the aura long before they manifest in the flesh as
a common cold. It is a far easier matter to cure a person when they are
only just tinged with a complaint. The complaint, the disease, can then be
eradicated before it obtain is a hold."

The Principal nodded and said, "This is most interesting. .Go
on." I went on: "I visualize a modern version of that old
apparatus. I would like to assist in the preparation of a similar device
so that even the most non - clairvoyant doctor or surgeon could look
through this box and could see the aura of a person in colour. He could
also have a matching chart and with that chart he would be able to know
what was actually wrong with the person. He would be able to diagnose
without any difficulty or inaccuracy at all."

"But,". said the lecturer, "you are too late. We have X
- rays already!"

"'X - rays," said Dr. Lee. "Oh, my dear fellow, they are
useless for a purpose such as this. They rely show grey shadows of the
bones. Lobsang Rampa not want to show the bones, he wants to show the
lifeforce of the body itself. I understand precisely 'what he means and I
am sure that the biggest difficulty with which he will be confronted will
be prejudice and professional jealousy."

He turned to me again, "But how could one help in mental
complaints with such a device?"

"Reverend Principal," I said, "if a person has split
personality the aura shows very clearly indeed because it shows a dual
aura, and I maintain that with suitable apparatus the two auras could be
pushed into one - perhaps by high frequency electricity."

Now I am writing this in the West and I am finding that there is much
interest in these matters. Many medical men of the highest eminence have
expressed interest but invariably they say that I must not mention their
name as it would prejudice their reputation! These further few remarks may
be of interest: have you ever seen power cables during a slight haze? If
so, particularly in mountain areas, you will have seen a corona round the
wires. That is, a faint light encircling the wires. If your sight is very
good you will have seen the light flicker, wane and grow, wane and grow,
as the current coursing through the wires alters in polarity. That is much
the same as the human aura. The old people, our great, great, great -
ancestors, evidently could see auras, or see haloes, because they were
able to paint them on pictures of saints. That, surely, cannot be ascribed
by any one as imagination because if it was imagination only why paint it
on the head, why paint it on the head where there actually is a light?
Modern science has already measured the waves of a brain, measured the
voltage of a human body. There is, in fact, one very famous hospital where
research was undertaken years ago into Xrays. The researchers found that
they were taking pictures of a human aura, but they did not understand
what they were taking, nor did they care, because they were trying to
photograph bones, not colours on the of a body, and they looked upon this
aura photography as an unmitigated nuisance. Tragically the whole of the
matter relating to aura photography was shelved, while they progressed
with Xrays which, in my quite humble opinion, is the wrong way.

I am utterly confident that with a little research doctors and surgeons
could be provided with the most wonderful aid of all towards curing the
sick. I visualise as I did many years ago - a special apparatus which any
doctor could carry with him in his pocket, and then he could produce it
and view a patient through it in much the same way as one takes a piece of
smoked glass to look at the sun. With this device he could see the
patient's aura, and by the striations of colour, or by irregularities in
outline, he could see exactly what was wrong with the patient. That is not
the most important thing, because it does not help to merely know what is
wrong with a person, one needs to know how to cure him, and this he could
do so easily with the device I have in mind, particularly in the case of
those with mental afflictions.